Adjustable motor supports



M ATTORNEY Dec. 10, 1963 L. s. DOHERTY ADJUSTABLE MOTOR SUPPORTS Filed March 15, 1959 J 2 W W. J m y 2 m f Km 2 2 WM 5 A U .wm 17 a? a I J P w v m e m. 7. .Z W Z V m 4 i M i Z Unitd States atent Ofifie i atentetl Dec. 10, 1963 3,113,753 ADJUSTABLE MQTQR SUPPORTS Lewis Stirling Daherty, Baton Rouge, La, assignor to Doherty-Silentaire, Baton Rouge, La. Filed Mar. 13, 1959, Ser. No. 799,175 1 Claim. (Cl. 24823) This invention relates to an adjustable motor support which serves as a belt tightening or tensioning means. The main objects of this invention are:

First, to provide an adjustable motor support which is well adapted for use for tightening or properly tensioning the belt connection to a fixedly mounted driven member.

Second, to provide means for iadjustably tensioning the belt connection for a motor pulley to a fan pulley or the like.

Third, to provide means for adjustably supporting a motor on a fixed frame member or support which also constitutes a support for the driven element.

Fourth, to provide an adjustable motor suppont which is adaptable to motor bases of widely used types.

Objects relating to details and economies of the invention will appear from the description to follow. The invention is defined and pointed out in the claim.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary elevational view of a structure embodying my invention, the frame and fan and certain other parts being conventionally illustrated.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of the motor base member and associated parts embodying my invention.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary view in transverse section on a line corresponding to line 33 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary view on a line cor responding to line 44 of FIG. 2.

In the accompanying drawing the frame designated generally by the numeral 1 is rectangular and is provided with the diagonal support members 2, these parts being conventionally illustrated, but it should be understood that they are greatly varied in practice, sometimes being formed of flat stock as illustrated, and sometimes of round tubular stock.

The fan bearing 3 is mounted on these frame members 2 at the juncture thereof, the fan blades being conventionally shown at 4 and the pulley 5 which is secured to the fan shaft 3. The electric motor 6 is also conventionally illustrated and it is provided with a pulley 7 drivingly connected to the fan pulley 5 by the belt 8. The motor base member 9 has upwardly projecting arms 10 at each end thereof. The details of mounting the motor on these arms are not illustrated as they form no part of this invention. The base member 9 is provided with laterally spaced pairs of slots 11. The laterally spaced slide members 12 and 13 are provided with longitudinal slots 14 alignable with the slots 11 to receive the bolts 15. The main purpose of the slots 11 and 14 in the base 9 and the slides is to permit the slides being readily attached to motor bases which may differ substantially in dimensions.

The slides 12 and 13 are duplicates with the exception that the slide 12 is provided with the abutment 16, the purpose of which will appear as the description proceeds. These slides are of downwardly opening channel section and are designed to slidably embrace the slide way 17, the arms 18 of the slides terminating in inturned offset engaging portions 19. The arms of the slide way in this embodiment illustrated have offsets 20 therein receiving the way engaging members 19, see FIG. 3. These offsets are particularly desirable to provide clearance for the members 19 when the slide way is mounted upon a fiat surface support such as illustrated at 2.

In this embodiment illustrated the slide way is secured to the support by the bolts 21, but it will be understood that it may be secured by spot welding or otherwise in the event the supports 2 are of metal. While the supports 2 illustrated are flat faced, as stated they are frequently of round or other section, but in any case the slide way is fixedly secured to the support. The forming of both the slide way and the slides of channel section with the slides embracing the slide way as illustrated, provides a very effective lateral twist resisting connection while permitting the slidable adjustment of the motor on the slide way. The slide way is provided with the inwardly projecting lug 22 aligned with the abutment 16 to receive the adjusting screw 23 which is in thrust engagement with the abutment 16 on the slide member 12. Desirably a lock nut 24 is provided.

With this arrangement of parts the motor may be very quickly and easily mounted on the slide way and is effectively supported thereby so that it may be adjusted relative to the shaft or axis of the pulley 5', thereby providing means for tensioning the belt in the initial installation and to compensate for stretch and wear resulting from use and use conditions.

Among the advantages of the structure of this invention is that with the motor properly adjusted upon the motor base to align with the driven pulley all that it is necessary to do to adjust the tension of the belt is to adjust the screw 23; the slide in effect becomes a part of the motor base. In the event it is necessary to repair the motor it may be removed from the support and replaced as occasion may require without any further adjustment.

1 have illustrated and described my invention in a Sim ple and highly practical embodiment thereof. I have not attempted to illustrate or describe other embodiments or adaptations as it is believed that this disclosure will en-' able those skilled in the art to embody or adapt my in vention as may be desired.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to secure by Letters Patent is:

An adjustable support for a motor, comprising a motor base member provided with spaced pairs of slots extend; ing transversely thereof, laterally spaced. slides disposed on the underside of said motor base member and having longitudinal slots therein registering with and disposed transversely of said slots of said motor base member, bolts disposed through said slots of said motor base memher and said slides for adjustably connecting the slides and said motor base member, a slide way of upwardly facing channel section having offsets therein providing inwardly facing shoulder like ways, said slides having arms slidably embracing said slide way and having inturned offset engaging portions retainingly and slidably engaging said ways, one of said slide members having an abutment disposed between the arms thereof, the slide way being provided with a projecting lug aligned with said abutment on said slide member, and an adjusting and thrust sustaining screw threadedly engaged with said lug and in thrust engagement with said abutment on said slide member.

References (Jited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,831,165 Eastman Nov. 10, 1931 2,148,524 Bartch et al Feb. 28, 1939* 2,255,908 Anderson Sept. 16, 1941 2,498,392 Boyle Feb. 21, 1950 2,606,453 Firth l Aug. 12, 1952' 2,669,404 Howard a Feb. 16, 1954 2,935,287 Higgins u... May 3, 1960 

